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Beatles News
Sir Paul McCartney has insisted there was too much "emotional pain" to carry on The Beatles without John Lennon.
The group went their separate ways in 1970 after the singer - who was shot dead in 1980 - decided to quit but his former bandmate insisted he, Ringo Starr and the late George Harrison never considered continuing as a three-piece because they felt so "fed up".
Speaking to Howard Stern on SiriusXM, Paul said: "It's like a family, when families break up it's to do with the emotion and the emotional pain, you can't think of a smart idea like that at the time, you're hurting too much, it wasn't going to happen.
"We'd been through too much and I think we were just fed up of the whole thing."
When the DJ discussed the songwriting partnership Paul and George could have enjoyed, the 77-year-old superstar admitted the 'My Sweet Lord' hitmaker's writing abilities had often been underestimated because he was a "late bloomer" when it came to penning lyrics.
Source: missoulian.com
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THERE is nobody from Northwich who got closer to the Beatles that the late Gwili Lewis.
In the 1960s, when the band played their gigs before packed out audiences, he was the manager of Northwich Memorial Hall.
On Sunday mornings, I used to sit down with Gwili for a cup of tea and chat after the service at Castle Community Church in Northwich.
Sadly, that all came to an end after Gwili passed away peacefully after a long and successful life in June last year, aged 98.
One Sunday morning, in his usual charming and entertaining manner, Gwili told me more about what went on behind the scenes on Carnival Day 1963, which saw The Beatles perform in Verdin Park.
The band had arrived early that day and they were awaiting Gwili at the old police station.
Gwili said: “My job was to drive them around the Northwich suburbs for a couple of hours in a van to conceal them from the crowds.
Source: By John Hulme/northwichguardian.co.uk
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On a late summer afternoon more than half a century ago, Chris and Monty Field, teenage brothers, found a spot on the courthouse square in Harrisburg, Illinois, to watch a Shriners parade. By some accounts, 12,000 people had gathered for the festivities, even though the population of this farm town was only about 9,000. As 40 marching units, some in their characteristic fezzes, came down the street, Chris and Monty engaged in conversation with a striking blonde in her early 30s who spoke with an English accent. Her name, she said, was Louise. She was there with her children and two brothers. Louise did most of the talking, but the younger of the two brothers, whose name was George, made an impression all the same. “He had a funny haircut, kind of long and stringy,” Monty recalls. “Most of the boys at that time had flattops.” George was wearing jeans, he noticed, with a hole at the knee.
Source: Ackerman + Gruber,Alan Pell Crawford/smithsonianmag.com
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George Harrison was the Beatles' acknowledged lead guitarist, but others subbed for him as far back as 1964's "You Can't Do That." There was also the trio approach employed on 1969's "The End," as first Paul McCartney, then Harrison and finally John Lennon traded two-bar solos three times.
In between, Lennon and McCartney would occasionally take over, even if Harrison continued to mime their guitar solos onscreen for "Another Girl" from the Help! movie and the promo clip for "Paperback Writer" – both of which were actually performed by McCartney.
This created some confusion, sometimes even within the group. "I don't think I was playing the guitar feedback" on 1967's "It's All Too Much," Harrison told Billboard in 1999. "As I say, I was playing the organ, so I think that was probably Paul that did that."
Source: ultimateclassicrock.com
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Paul McCartney has called Chinese wet markets “medieval” and blamed them for the spread of coronavirus, using a comparison with the abolition of the slave trade when calling for them to be banned.
So-called “wet markets” in Asia trade in fresh meat and produce, and sometimes feature live animals. (They take their name from the frequently hosed-down floors.) A common theory – though far from confirmed – is that Covid-19 originated in a live animal market in Wuhan, with the disease being transmitted from illegally traded bat or pangolin meat.
Speaking to US radio host Howard Stern about the coronavirus crisis, McCartney said: “I really hope that this will mean the Chinese government says, ‘OK guys, we have really got to get super hygienic around here.’ Let’s face it, it is a little bit medieval eating bats.”
Source: Ben Beaumont-Thomas/theguardian.com
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Rare footage of late sitar player Ravi Shankar has surfaced that sees him teaching Beatles guitarist George Harrison the instrument.
The footage has been shared by The Ravi Shankar Foundation with the BBC to commemorate what would’ve been the icon’s 100th birthday (April 11).
Shankar was described as the “godfather of world music” by Harrison, and a number of celebrations in London and New York were planned to celebrate his centenary, but have been cancelled due to the coronavirus.
Instead, a new video of rare footage has been shared to mark the occasion, which features footage from a number of Shankar’s gigs, and him teaching Harrison the sitar. Watch it here via the BBC.
Source: Will Richards/nme.com
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Fifty years since their dissolution in April 1970 the Beatles live on. The band’s music, their significance and their individual personalities exert a hold on the cultural consciousness that seems to tighten as their heyday recedes. But is there anything new to say? Craig Brown’s One Two Three Four, the latest to enter the crowded library of Beatles books, is not a biography so much as a group portrait in vignettes, a rearrangement of stories and legends whose trick is to make them gleam anew.
The subtitle, The Beatles in Time, marks out the book’s difference from the rest. Brown goes on Beatles jaunts around Liverpool and Hamburg, visits fan festivals, tests the strength of the industry that has agglomerated around them. So many of the clubs where they played are now lost or changed beyond recognition – “a memory of a memory” – and the fans who do the pilgrimages are simply chasing shadows.
Source: Anthony Quinn/theguardian.com
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John Lennon’s “Imagine” is the most famous song from his solo career. It’s an anthem for peace and antimaterialism. Interestingly, the piano on which John composed it was owned by a different artist: George Michael.
Michael made music that was pretty far removed from John’s. However, that didn’t stop him from admiring John’s work. Here’s why he saw his purchase of John’s piano as charitable.
The piano was built in Hamburg in 1970, according to MTV News. So it was very new when John released “Imagine” in 1971. The piano can be seen in the music video for “Imagine,” which features John and his wife, Yoko Ono. Whoever built the piano probably had no idea it would become a sought-after collector’s item.
In 1992, a private collector purchased the piano, the Independent reports. That collector loaned the piano to Liverpool’s Beatles museum. Then, the collector began to think about selling the piano to wealthy Fab Four fans in Japan or the U.S.
Source: cheatsheet.com
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At Mount Sinai South Nassau on New York's Long Island, the hospital staff reportedly spins "Here Comes the Sun" on the public address system every time a coronavirus patient is discharged. Paul McCartney is set to play the upcoming "One World: Together at Home" charity special, joining a bill that includes 18-year-old superfan Billie Eilish, nearly 60 years his junior.
"Yellow Submarine" has gained new resonance as an intergenerational singalong, crooned by neighbors through windows-turned-portholes, socially distant, but inextricably linked.
Source: Jere Hester CNN
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"Let It Be" was a massive hit and has become one of the Beatles most popular songs, but John Lennon hated it.
The reasons are multifaceted. The clearest line can be drawn to the infamously contentious recording sessions for the Let It Be album.
By this point in their career, the Beatles were constantly fighting, with Lennon later describing the experience as “going through hell.” While Lennon and Paul McCartney had always maintained differing writing styles, their creative desires had pulled them further apart than ever before. Paul McCartney grew tired of Lennon’s experimentations, while Lennon called McCartney’s brand of storytelling songwriting “granny music.”
It should come as no surprise, then, that Lennon was immediately dismissive of the idea his songwriting partner brought to the studio in January of 1969. Explaining that he’d been inspired by a dream in which he’d seen his deceased mother, McCartney launched into the now-familiar phrases of “Let It Be.” Lennon was unimpressed, feeling that the style didn’t suit the band.
Source: ultimateclassicrock.com
Paul McCartney’s hastily scribbled notes for a 1968 studio recording fetches nine times its original estimate
Paul McCartney’s handwritten lyrics to The Beatles’ hit song Hey Jude has sold for $910,000, nine times its original estimate, auction house Julien’s Auctions said.
A vintage bass drumhead with The Beatles’ logo that was used during the English band’s first North American tour in 1964 was another top item in the auction, selling for $200,000.
The lyrics and guitar were among more than 250 items of Beatles memorabilia offered in an online auction on Friday by Julien’s Auctions in New York to mark the 50th anniversary of the band’s breakup.
A drawing by John Lennon and wife Yoko Ono called Bagism, a term they coined to satirise stereotyping, sold for $93,750, while an ashtray used by the Fab Four’s drummer Ringo Starr at the Abbey Road recording studios in London fetched $32,500.
Source: Reuters/theguardian.com
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Self-proclaimed "opinionated" Brighton area author Ted Montgomery said he hopes he has written "a good bar stool book that gives you good things to argue over."
When it comes to music, everyone has their own likes and dislikes about what sounds good.
Montgomery, who lives in Green Oak Township said he did not hold back his personal opinions when penning his new book.
He poured over an enormous catalog of hundreds of songs by former member of The Beatles and prolific solo musician Paul McCartney.
Montgomery's new book "The Paul McCartney Catalog: A Complete Annotated Discography of Solo Works, 1967-2019" covers 52 years of music, videos, radio shows and other materials the 77-year-old British rocker released, mostly after The Beatles officially split in 1970.
The first of 18 occasions Montgomery saw Paul McCartney perform live was in 1976.
Source: Jennifer Timar, Livingston Daily
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It was the news that had millions of fans not so much gently weeping as crying for help – the Beatles were no more.
While technically speaking the Fab Four were not officially dissolved until 1975, Paul McCartney’s bombshell press release on April 10, 1970 marks the end of the world’s favourite band.
He could see no future in his famed songwriting partnership with John Lennon, Paul said while promoting a solo album, and did not miss either George Harrison or Ringo Starr.
Five decades on and debate still rages over what – or who, in the case of Yoko Ono – broke up the Beatles.
Following the split, John, Paul, George and Ringo went their separate ways, pursuing successful solo careers while the band’s music swelled in popularity.
Here’s what they did next:
Source: breakingnews.ie
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Fifty years ago, when Paul McCartney announced he had left the Beatles, the news dashed the hopes of millions of fans, while fueling false reunion rumors that persisted well into the new decade.
In a press release, on April 10, 1970, for his first solo album, “McCartney,” he leaked his intention to leave. In doing so, he shocked his three bandmates.
The Beatles had symbolized the great communal spirit of the era. How could they possibly come apart?
Few at the time were aware of the underlying fissures. The power struggles in the group had been mounting at least since their manager, Brian Epstein, died in August of 1967
Source: Tim Riley, The Conversation/smithsonianmag.com
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A rare photograph of the trio who evolved into the Beatles has emerged.
The previously-unpublished photo of The Quarrymen shows Paul McCartney, John Lennon and George Harrison a year before becoming The Beatles.
The picture, captured in a Liverpool home in 1959, has surfaced on the 50th anniversary of McCartney announcing he was leaving the group.
"History shines in every dimly-lit detail," said Beatles' historian and author Mark Lewisohn.
"Within a year of this moment the Quarrymen had become The Beatles, professional musicians playing long hours in Hamburg," he added.
"Four years from here they'd have attained the inconceivable level of fame and popularity that joyously maintains to this day - out from this Liverpool room and across the universe."
Lennon formed the skiffle and rock 'n' roll group in early 1957 alongside Rod Davis, Pete Shotton, Colin Hanton, Eric Griffiths and Len Garry.
The group was later joined by McCartney and Harrison.
McCartney, Lennon and Harrison evolved into The Beatles, along with Pete Best, until he was replaced by Ringo Starr in August 1962.
Source: BBC